PIO Card

This forum has been really helpful for me during the PIO process. So I'm posting my experience for the benefit of other users.

We received the PIO card yesterday. I received my baby’s PIO card within 3.5 weeks from the day of mailing the application to CKGS. Overall experience was very positive. Initially the call center folks answered my phone but towards the end of the process I was unable to reach anyone over the phone. However the e-mail inquiries received prompt responses.

The primary gray areas I had in the process were
1. Acceptable address proof for spouse: All the utilities are under my name and I was worried that my spouse had no ‘acceptable’ address proof. CKGS website and call center folks were very particular about accepting only certain documents as address proofs. In the end they suggested me to send whatever document I had and said that it’s under the discretion of the consular officer processing the case. The call center rep also said that sometimes one parent address proof is also sufficient – again, it’s based on the discretion of the processing officer. I sent the gas bill with my name on it and local municipality bill that had both our names on it. I have no idea which one did the magic but I did not receive any queries and we received the PIO card without any problem.
2. Thumb print of baby: This was probably the most challenging part of the application – getting a 6 month old to thumb print in 4 or 5 different places. No two prints looked the same but I read in the immihelp forums that this shouldn’t be a problem, so we mailed the application. I used blue ink stamp to get her to do her prints. Do it when the baby is asleep. Cleaning the ink off the little thumbs was another pain.
3. Notary: I did this at BoA free of charge. The asked me to download a JURAT form which is an extra paper that will have the notary’s will sign on. Both parents need to be present to get the notary done.